Party tactics (who gets whom?)
Mrpenfold666
Member Posts: 428
after doing a quick search I failed to find this topic of discussion which i think could be fun to talk about,
who do you have in your party and why?
me i use either:
Mage/cleric main character (cant get rid of :P)
Theif/mage Imoen (i love the character)
Druid/fighter Jaheira (makes sense to join up with jaheira and khalid as she is usually the first healer i encounter)
fighter Kahlid (a decent fighter and can swap to bow if needed as he has a solid 16/17 dex (cant remember which one)
Cleric Branwen (if im playing a mage)/ Mage Dynaheir (if im playing a cleric) (yes please to a tough to kill healer)
Ranger Minsc (enough said)
the way i use the party in near enough every fight is Kahlid and minsc take on the larger threats, Branwen / me and Jaheria take on the weaker things so they can either kill the minons off or pull away safely so heal minsc and kahlid while Dynaheir / me and imoen snipe and buff when needed or used to take out the weaker things when healers need to pull back to heal the frontline guys.
who do you use, how and why?
who do you have in your party and why?
me i use either:
Mage/cleric main character (cant get rid of :P)
Theif/mage Imoen (i love the character)
Druid/fighter Jaheira (makes sense to join up with jaheira and khalid as she is usually the first healer i encounter)
fighter Kahlid (a decent fighter and can swap to bow if needed as he has a solid 16/17 dex (cant remember which one)
Cleric Branwen (if im playing a mage)/ Mage Dynaheir (if im playing a cleric) (yes please to a tough to kill healer)
Ranger Minsc (enough said)
the way i use the party in near enough every fight is Kahlid and minsc take on the larger threats, Branwen / me and Jaheria take on the weaker things so they can either kill the minons off or pull away safely so heal minsc and kahlid while Dynaheir / me and imoen snipe and buff when needed or used to take out the weaker things when healers need to pull back to heal the frontline guys.
who do you use, how and why?
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Kagain: tank, darts
Kivan: composite long bow +1
Coran: dead shot
Khalid: short bow
Garrick: crossbow of speed, spells
Party worked out well, one of the smoother playthroughs I've had.
Charname: Human Wizard
Khalid
Jaheira
Branwen
Imoen
Kivan /Ajantis
Which is really funny because the only one in that group I like is Branwen.
My most recent evil play through looked like this:
Charname: Human Wizard (evil this time)
Shar-Teel - I LOVE her attitude
Kagain - Harty tank
Viconia - My favorite Cleric in the game and potential love interest
Xzar - I considered swapping out for Edwin, but needed Monty
Montaron - Hey, ya gotta have a thief. Ok, I have to have a thief. Or maybe I just want one. And if he specializes in wet work, all the better.
Kind of a shame that only Viccy makes it into BG2.
Right now I run;
Me-Cleric/ranger-muscle-First time I try this legendary build
Khalid. I usually don't use him, but I'll give him the 5 pips in Longsword and let him ruule
Neera-Loveinterest mainly
Imoen-Find Traps and Set Traps
Coran-Archer/Open Locks/Stealth...he IS plain ridiculous with speed boots/stealth and arrows of biting
Quayle-First time ever I used him. Mostly out of curiosity but how can you not love a cleric/mage
PC - Abjurer - Main role is for sleep/fear etc
Imoen - I have never dueled her. Bow and thief duties
Minsc - I have him using the Mace that stuns (name eludes me) Tank
Dorn - Helps Minsc on the frontline and brings the pain. I gave him XBow prof for extra options
Branwen - Sling mainly but she joins the melee monsters if we get swamped or she protects the other squishes oh and the priestly spells
Dynaheir - I have her for the buffing spells mainly (Abjuration bars transmutation unfortunatly) So she will be the haste bot when I get the scroll and. Uses a sling as well.
So far this is working well. I think it would be smoother with only 1 mage and another fighter type but as stated Dynaheir covers my prohibited school and I will be using 2 mages in BE2EE so might as well get some practice now
(charname is usually a fighter type, so he is at the top, and I use two handed weapons because I just love big weapons, and if im not at the top then I will substitute one of the following:)
Khalid- : I think this guy is a great fighter, can have 4 stars in longsword, has great HP, and when you give him the gaunlets of ogre power, he is awesome, also has relatively decent dex
Kivan- : Has great dex, and I start skilling him with scimitar, with defender+3 he can have some great AC, plus he has some decent strength, so I give him the weapon specialization gloves, and I give him the claw of kazgaroth sometimes because it doesn't affect his HP
Minsc- : Only if I need a third fighter, don't really like him that much because his con/dex are both horrible and I always give him the mits of dexterity, and I also skill him with a scimitar, because the scimitars are the best one handed weapons in the game when it comes to damage
Branwen/Yeslick- : If I don't race off to cloakwood mines, I use branwen, if I do race off I use yeslick, I only use branwen because she is a cleric and I need one, and once she's in I just keep her around, although if I have yeslick im very happy with him, has great to hit/damage with a sling a ling ding a ling, has CON so he has HP and great saves, and ATTACKS PER ROUND, that's always a nice plus, usually I will give him the mits of dex and kiel's buckler for 19 dex so he rocks with a sling
Imoen/Coran- : Same scenario, if I race off to cloakwood, I pick up coran, if not I keep imoen, the only thing I like about imoen is that she is level 1 when you get her, so you can customize her the way you wish, I used to dual class her into a mage and use safana but she can no longer dual into a specialist wizard, so I never dual her ever, but if I have Coran on my team, I'm happy, he is an AMAZING archer and that's about it with him, although it takes awhile to get his thief points to where I want them but thanks to EE's 25 points a level, he can actually hit 90 open locks/ 100 find traps, which is very nice
Neera/Dynaheir- : Neera is an awesome mage, can learn any spell in the game and has an extra spell a level, I love it, don't care too much about this romance load of nonsense but I guess it adds some flavor to the game, I also like the fact that she has some pretty decent dex, which is nice for slings and AC, and Dynaheir, I only bring her along if I have minsc, because basically anything dynaheir can do, Neera can do better ( dynaheir does have more HP, but Neera gets hit WAY less which makes up for it)
So that is how my team is usually made up, now when I play evil, its the same case scenario for my charname with these substitutions:
Dorn- : This guy is AMAZING, ridiculous damage, fairly decent AC, can wear claw of kazgaroth with no down sides, and has great saves, he is another PC that can do the - anything you can do I can do better - thing with minsc, he is better in every way compared to minsc, infact I think Dorn is a little OP for a PC, but oh well, I take him first priority in my evil parties
Shar-Teel- : Not to fond of this dual wielding garbage they tried to set her up with, I wish she still had 2 points in longsword but oh well, 3 will have to do, she has great dex for a fighter, so awesome AC, has really great STR as well, which makes her even better, and she can also wear the claw with no downside, she is absolutely number 2 choice that has to be in an evil team
Kagin- : crap str, crap dex, but DAMN con, especially with Bentley's buckler, holy poop on a stick, the HPs and regeneration is great, I NEVER heal this guy, EVER, because its never necessary plus he has wicked saves, perfect meat shield, even if he cant hit crap, everyone else can eventually, and also he DEFINATELY needs those mitties of dex, to be the ultimate sentinel
Viconia- : 3 things; great dex, fairly good wisdom, and MAGIC RESISTANCE, those are all the reasons why, unfortunately if she uses the claw of kaz she gets a HP penalty, so no-no for her, but other than that, great cleric for evil teams
Montaron/Baeloth- : If charname isn't a thief, I use montaron, I really never really liked this guy in vanilla because he couldn't hit the prerequisite 90/100 for thief abilities, but he eventually became awesome with a longbow, 3 attacks per round with dead shot is awesome, but now in EE he can hit 90/100 which is great, but if charname is a thief then I use baeloth, he has an illegal amount of spells known plus also possibly an illegal amount of spells useable per day, so hands down, that makes him awesome, plus he starts off with the best robe in the game, although his weapon
choice is poop, so much amazing spell casting
Edwin- : for the obvious reason: best specialist mage type in the game, can learn absolutely any useful spell in the game except for identify, but with an extra spell per level useable per day, that more than makes up for it, Edwin is great, especially paired up with baeloth, the need for identify is gone, and the amount of spell casting that happens is ridonkulous, I love every bit of it
So that is usually the team make up I use, every once in a while, I will go A-wall and use like Garrick or Alora or some bother to change it up a bit, but in a nutshell, that is what I do
Charname - female Cavalier - I tend to prefer combat oriented builds, never really run a pure mage or cleric, and I'm planning on taking this lady through BG2 + ToB, and, believe it or not, romancing Anomen, because I've never done that before. She's specialized in two handed swords and that style, got the Spider's Bane in her hands, full plate and a ring of protection, she's good to go.
Imoen - Because, come on, she's Imoen. You gotta take her. Dueled her to mage at thief 4, with 80/70 in locks/traps. Should be plenty to cover the thief slot for now, would probably even do OK endgame if I make her chug some potions. Dueled her right after we got out of the Nashkel mines (needed her as a thief for the traps in there) then ran sidequests on the sides of the coast road to get her up to mage 5 before we hit the bandit camp (with its plethora of locked chests).
Khalid - Along with my cavalier, the other tank. Doesn't require the dex gauntlets to survive, he's a tried and true sword + board.
Jaheria - She's been slinging and handling healing duties, along with the one or two other druid spells that are actually useful.
Coran - Just picked him up in the Cloakwood, with his insane dexterity and fighter levels, he makes a great archer. The Long Bow of Marksmanship I got at that bandit camp doesn't hurt either, I think he's got a THAC0 of like 6, which is ridiculous for early-mid BG1. I also plan to skill him up to cover the thief stuff Imoen didn't get. He'll stay with me through the rest of the game.
I'm about to tackle the Cloakwood mine with this party, and I plan on picking up Yeslick as I go. I'll give him the dex gauntlets and Basiluss' war hammer and make him a tank, he'll take over healing duties as well. Yeslick will stick with me for the duration of BG1, but once I'm clear of the mines I'll drop Khalid and Jaheria. I never liked 'em much anyway. Still can't bring myself to leave them in the mine and then open the floodgates, I don't hate them quite that much. After the mines I'll be at a 4 character party again, but I'm thinking about picking up Qualye once we hit Baldur's Gate to add a little more spellcasting power to the party. I also might grab Garrick for about 5 minutes, take him out to the coast, and use him as bait for Shoal the Nereid. I *forgot* to talk to him after the little dust-up with Silke, so he's still loitering in front of the Red Sheaf.
Meagloth-socerer, because I am epic like that.
Khalid-my favorite character, except for xan. Gauntlets of ogre power, shield of fallen stars, varscona. It don't get better than that, people. Dead shot +2 for ranged wepon when needed. I should play a party with coran an give that to him, now that I think about it.
Imoen-never dualled her. Just a thief. Played alora once. I liked her, if not her attitude.
Bealoth-enough said
Xan-sleep, people, sleep. One can never have to many specialist mages.
Branwen, of yeslik. Never liked jaheria, and she usually suffers a tragic death I battle, and can't be revived due to lack of funds, because we're saving up for Mage robes and daggers of venom.
If I decide not to take damage, than the cleric roll is taken by Edwin, or xzar, and once, safana.
My most recent playthrough was me (sorcerer), imoen, Khalid, jaheria, Garrick, neera.
I really liked neera, but thought the VoiceOver was kind of annoying. Good to finally see a wild Mage npc though.
PC (Elf Thief/mage)
- Scimitars (Sorry Drizzt
- Dex buckler
- shortbows
Khalid
- Just enough STR to wear the heavy gear.
- ++++ on longswords (this guy's a beast!)
Jaheira
- Same as Khalid
- ++ on staves, dex gloves
- Jaheira casts the fast cast priest spells (slow poison, str of one, etc)
Imoen (dualed to a mage)
- Shortsword, darts, daggers
Branwen
- Casts prebuffs and slower spells
- Flails
Garrick
- Third mage and anti-fear and anti-panic for Khalid.
- Identify
- the +6 crusher (halberd), longbows
The way this group work is to play mostly with ranged weaponry and make use of the high dex early on. Mages cast single target Strength spell on Khalid and Jaheira until one of the priests gets the Strength of One spells and then all characters turn into melee fighters with high stre, high dex and high constitution.
Branwen does most of the priest buffs, Jaheira is mainly a melee fighter (dex gloves!) using staves and casting spells that are very fast cast so she doesn't lose melee uptime.
Garrick is primarily using chainmails and hitting things in melee and using his spells off combat for other utility. When the levels kick in and Branwen has enough barkskins to go around, he'll switch over to casting combat spells and dumping chainmails.
The PC ends up having a truckton of AC through having 21 dex passive (-5AC), dex buckler, defender, balduran cloak, etc.